Method for controlling home automation system

ABSTRACT

A method for controlling a home automation system is disclosed, in which a PC for controlling web sites, electric home appliances, and communication between the web sites and the electric home appliances is provided. The method includes a step for trying to communicate with web sites or electric home appliances by using a predetermined program, a step for displaying a web page or a local page according to the communication try result; a step for displaying a corresponding web page or a local page according to the number of connected electric home appliances; and a step for controlling a corresponding appliance by inputting a controlling button of the displayed page.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a home automation system, and moreparticularly, to a method for controlling the home automation system.

BACKGROUND ART

There are various home appliances being widely used in homes such as aTV, a refrigerator, a washing machine, a microwave oven, and anair-conditioner, each of which has a corresponding control device or a:control part in its body, thereby being controlled by a remotecontroller or by the operation of its control part.

As the related art home appliances have their own remote controllers,however, the number of remote controllers increases as the number of thehome appliances increases. Accordingly, a user comes to have adifficulty in keeping numerous remote controllers and finding the rightremote controller each time he/she needs to control a certain homeappliance. Also, as each home appliance is separately controlled, tointegrate and optimize a home appliance system is not possible.

In addition, because of insufficient memory and functions of amicrocomputer of home appliances, to remote control them by loading aprotocol such as a transfer control protocol (TCP) in them is not easy.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method forcontrolling a home automation system that substantially obviates one ormore problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method forcontrolling a home automation system by which web surfing and homeappliances are controlled at the same time.

Another object of the present invention is to minimize inconveniencescaused when a type or a control method of a home appliance is changed.

Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will beset forth in part in the description which follows and in part willbecome apparent to those having a ordinary skill in the art uponexamination of the following or may be learned from practice of theinvention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may berealized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in thewritten description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with thepurpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, ahome automation system of the present system includes a website, a PCfor attempting communication with the website, and a home appliancebeing connected to the PC.

A method for controlling a home automation system includes steps ofdisplaying the result of a communication attempt of a PC with a web siteand a home appliance when a user drives a predetermined communicationprogram, displaying a guide page of the corresponding applianceaccording to the communication attempt result: and the number of thehome appliances being connected to the PC, and c controlling thecorresponding appliance according to a user command which is input asthe user inputs a control button on a screen of the correspondingappliance being displayed.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and areintended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention, andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a home automation system inaccordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method for controlling a homeautomation system in accordance with the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a home automation system inaccordance with the present invention and FIG. 2 is a flow chartillustrating a method for controlling a home automation system inaccordance with the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the home automation system of the present: inventionincludes a website 10 and a PC 20. The website 10 has data files forcontrolling a home appliance and files interpretable by a web browser.The PC 20 for controlling the corresponding home appliance 30 has abuilt-in internet operating program (IOP) for connecting the website 10with the home appliances 30.

The IOP being built in the PC 20 includes a web browser 21, a hardwarecontrol module 23, and an interface module 22. The web browser 21interprets a web page formed by HTML, JAVA, and the like and displaysthe web page on a screen. The hardware control module 23 outputs datafor controlling the home appliance 30 to the PC through a communicationport coupled to the PC or reads signals which are coming to thecommunication port of the PC 20 from the home appliance 30. Theinterface module 22 connects data between the web browser 21 and thehardware control module 23.

The home appliance 30 has an RS-232-based communication port tocommunicate with the PC.

A method for controlling a home automation system having theabove-described structure will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

First, a user drives an IOP (S 1).

When it is driven, the IOP attempts communication with a home applianceand a website (S 2).

It is checked whether the IOP is connected to the website after +theattempt of the step 1 (S 3).

If the IOP is successfully connected to the website, it is checkedwhether the IOP is connected to the home appliance as well (S 4).

If the IOP is also connected to the home appliance successfully, the IOPopens and displays the main web page (S 5).

When the main web page is opened, it is checked whether the IOP isconnected to only one home appliance (S 6).

If the IOP is connected to a plurality of home appliances, not just one,in the previous step (S6), the user selects one appliance he/she wants(S 7).

The IOP opens the web pace of the selected home appliance (S 8).

If the IOP is connected to only one home appliance in the step 6, itopens the web page of the corresponding home appliance (S 9).

On the other hand, if the IOP is not connected to the website in thestep 3, it is checked whether the IOP is connected to the home appliance(S 10).

As a result of the step 10 if the IOP is connected to the home appliancewithout being connected to the website, the main local page stored inthe PC is opened (S 11).

It is checked whether the IOP is connected to only one home appliance (S12). If the IOP is connected to a plurality of home appliances, not justone, the user selects one home appliance he/she wants and the local pageof the home appliance selected by the user is opened (S 13 and 14).

If the IOP is connected to only one home appliance as a result of thestep 12, however, it opens the local page of the corresponding homeappliance (S 15).

Then, it is checked whether the user clicked a browser button on theopened web page or local page (S 16).

If the browser button is clicked, it is checked whether the clickedbutton is an appliance control button (S 17).

As a result of the step 17, if the clicked browser button is theappliance control button, a control code of the corresponding applianceis extracted to be transmitted to the corresponding home appliancethrough a communication port (S 18).

On the other hand, if the clicked browser button is not the appliancecontrol button, a linked web page is opened (S 20).

As described above, in the method for remote controlling the homeautomation system, the user drives the IOP to attempt the communicationwith the website and the home appliance. Then the IOP determines whetherto communicate with both the website and home appliance is possible oronly to communicate with one of them is possible.

If it is turned out that the IOP can communicate with both the websiteand the home appliance, the number of home appliances being connected tothe IOP is checked. That is, if the IOP is connected to only one homeappliance, the main page of the website is opened and the web page ofthe corresponding home appliance is also opened. On the other hand, ifthe IOP is connected to a plurality of home appliances, the main page ofthe website is opened and the web page of the home appliance the userselected among a plurality of the appliances is opened.

In the mean time, if the IOP is connected to only one home appliancewithout being connected to the website, the local page of thecorresponding appliance, which is stored in the PC at the same period,is opened. Also, if the IOP is connected to a plurality of homeappliances, the user selects the home appliance he/she wants and the IOPopens the local page of the selected home appliance.

When the user clicks a browser button after the web page or local pageis opened, an interface module of the IOP reads the name of the link andextracts a value shown in a control code of the link name. Then, thecontrol code is converted to a data form capable of controlling the homeappliance and the data is transmitted to the corresponding homeappliance through a predetermined communication line. At this time, asfor the communication line, an RS-232c-based communication port is used.

The home appliance being provided with the above data extracts thecontrol code by analyzing the data and controls load of a product.

In the mean time, if the clicked button is linked to a general web page,not to the control button of the home appliance, the corresponding pageis opened.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As described above, a method for controlling the home automation systemhas the following advantages.

First, as home appliances can be controlled on a web browser, websurfing and the home appliances are controlled at the same time.

Second, even though a method for controlling the home appliances or atype of them are changed, a program does not have to be newly installed,as the home appliances can be controlled by downloading alternatedmatters through the connection with the website. Thereforeinconveniences the user may have are minimized.

Third, as the IOP automatically recognizes a product being connected tothe PC, the user does not have to be aware of all websites of allproducts.

While the present invention has been described and illustrated hereinwith reference to the preferred embodiment thereof, it will be apparentto those skilled in the art that various modifications and variationscan be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers themodifications and variations of this invention that come within thescope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

1. A method for controlling a home automation system, the homeautomation system being provided with a website and a PC for controllingcommunication with the website and/or at least one home appliance,comprising steps of: attempting communication with the website and/orthe at least one home appliance using a predetermined program;displaying a web page or a local page of a corresponding home applianceaccording to a communication attempt result; displaying a web page or alocal page of the corresponding home appliance based on the number ofthe home appliances that are connected; and controlling thecorresponding home appliance according to a command input via anappliance control button on a linked screen associated with thecorresponding appliance; wherein when displaying the web or local pagescorresponding to the communication attempt, the corresponding web pageis displayed if Internet Operation Program (IOP) built in the PC isconnected to both the website and home appliance and the local pagestored in the PC is displayed if the IOP is connected only to the homeappliance.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein if the number of homeappliances connected to the IOP is a predetermined value, the web pageor the local page of the corresponding home appliance being displayedaccording to the communication attempt.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein if the number of the home appliances connected to the IOP isgreater than the predetermined value, then a web page or a local page ofa selected home appliance is displayed.
 4. The method of claim 2,wherein the predetermined number is one.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein said controlling the corresponding home appliance includes:extracting a control code of the corresponding home appliance when theappliance control button is input; and transmitting the control code tothe corresponding home appliance through a communication port uponextracting the control code.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein thecommunication port is an RS-232C-based port.
 7. The method of claim 1,the method for controlling a home automation system further comprisesdisplaying the linked screen if the appliance control button is notactivated.